They are general comments. From my perspective, I just made some general comments. I would like to hear what everybody has to say and have the Minister respond to all of us in general. We will get into the detail when we get into the line-by-line by department. I don’t need to hear from him now, but once everybody has talked, I sure would like to hear what he has to say.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am wondering if the Minister could tell us whether he’s going to have an RFP out so someone can do a review of our contract use. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As I indicated, I believe our employees are our most valuable asset and, quite frankly, they are involved in the frontline day to day. They see our program delivery. They are involved in our program design, but unfortunately too often -- and this is a pet peeve of mine -- it’s totally easy to see when you look at that report of contracts over $5,000, which is about an inch and a half thick, and you see employees, or ex-employees of the GNWT who have gone away, started consulting businesses and we turn around and we consult with them, and we contract with them, and we contract with them to do...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Minister of Finance for the budget address there today. There is certainly a lot that can and will be discussed from both within the budget itself and from within the budget address. I am looking forward to those discussions.

I would like to start off right now with just a couple of points. First, I am happy to see that the budget is consistent with our fiscal strategy and that the growth is less than 3 percent minus the net compensation. I think that’s important for the future of this government, both the 16th and future governments.

I also...

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. I have nobody else on my list. What is the wish of committee? Mrs. Groenewegen

Thank, Mr. Chairman. Once again I would like to thank the Minister for his opening comments on the bill today. I just want to talk a little bit about some of the things that we heard and some of my general thoughts.

Obviously, I am looking forward to getting into the detail as we go department by department. Going through the statement, once again as I talk about my Member’s statement, I think it is important for us to be looking at new and creative ways to gain efficiency on the dollars that we are spending and utilize our dollars in the most effective and appropriate ways. I think, if you...

It sounds like we’re saying roughly the same thing, but I’d like to ask the Minister to commit to actually working with our employees and reduce the number of contracts that are being awarded for work that our staff are more than competent and qualified to do in-house. It will save us money. It will allow us to streamline money to where it can be most effective. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Quite frankly, I am in no way, shape or form negating all the hard work that’s been done by this department with respect to the Wildlife Act. I respect the unique approach that they’ve taken with respect to involving the Aboriginal governments. In fact, I applaud it. I think it’s exactly the right thing to do. I am also not getting specifically into detail of the act. We can do that at another time. I’m talking about consultation process. I’m talking about listening to the people of Northwest Territories. I’m talking about hearing what they have to say and assuring them...

For the record, I said earlier that I actually applaud the department and the Minister for the unique process that they put in place. I think it’s important, I think they did the right thing, but we’re still a public government and we still need to make sure that we hear the other half of the population, 50 percent of the population that don’t feel that they’ve been heard, and it’s the consultation process. Hay River had a problem with the consultation process. The Minister’s department went in there, they advertised somewhere, nobody is quite sure because nobody showed up. Turns out there was...

In fact, it’s just insulting to responsible hunters of the Northwest Territories who are not covered by land claims or treaties. This group’s voice is clearly not being heard.

This act is not ready to be presented in the House. It won’t be ready until the department conducts real consultation in good faith with interested stakeholders throughout the Northwest Territories.

At the appropriate time I will be asking the Minister responsible some questions on this topic.